Have you ever wanted something, if new you couldn't afford, that has been a lifelong dream? Sure, you have. Well, a dream can become a reality, but you have to wait until opportunity opens the door.

About two months before graduating from seminary, I had a call from a very small congregation in Sarasota, Florida, to visit and be considered as their very first full-time pastor. Julie and I were to come down from Richmond with our three kids, meet the search committee and preach at some large church. As providence would have it, we and the congregation were a perfect match. It took about three years for the church to grow from small to being big enough to expand our sanctuary, hire a full-time secretary and be totally independent financially from our Presbytery. Then, something remarkable happened! Julie and I were walking along the downtown waterfront, checking out some sailboats and talking about having one big enough for the whole family. "Nice, affordable, but too small. Just right, but too expensive. Wait! How about that one? It looks great and it's made out of plywood."

It took quite a while, but I was able to find the name of the owner who just happened to be the builder and lived just 20 miles north. It took some four or five months of visiting his shop, getting familiar with building sea-worthy boats, getting the courage to try it on my own and hearing Julie tell me to put up or shut up.

Step one, buy the plans for a San Francisco Bay Pelican and a book explaining how to use the West (wood epoxy) glue system. Step two, sweat bullets. Step three, forget to measure the size of our garage, inform the neighbors about the sound of evening sawing and that I was a total newcomer when it came to actually sailing. Hang on, now.

The Pelican is 19 feet from bowsprit to stern and 8 feet at the beam. It would have a cuddy cabin and a cockpit big enough for the whole family. I read and studied the plans every night until I thought I could build it from memory. Then one night, after agonizing over the plans for the twentieth or thirtieth time, I read something at the bottom of the last page. It had been there all along, but I just hadn't paid attention, "You'll never build this boat until you start cutting the wood." Folks, I could have prepared for the next 10 years, but until I actually began, nothing would ever happen.

There comes a time in our life when we have to fish or cut bait, put our money where our mouth is, do it or forget it, stand up and be counted or stay seated and miss our turn. Imagine the feeling when you are about to cut a piece of 4 by 8 Philippine mahogany plywood that costs $140 (in today's market)! Your hands shake, mouth gets dry, eyes go out of focus and you wonder what made you start such a dumb thing in the first place. But you do what you have to do, or you'll never be able to do it. Not ever!

There's not enough room to describe the building, the transportation, the launching and of the memory making "Ark Too." Let's just say that an evening sail with the kids by a lantern in the cockpit, Julie and I sitting close to one another at the tiller and having a few porpoises swimming within inches of the bow was a dream come true.

Friends, happiness is not fiction, accident, wealth or exaggerated expectations. It is not a destination. Happiness is loving one another and thankful for yesterday, today, whatever tomorrow may bring. Happiness is now!

Happiness is knowing that God so loved the world that He gave us His Son who has given us forever.

Thanks, God!